Etc.

November 3, 2008

Even if you could, people who know Romania well say you probably wouldn't want to race through the small city of Sinaia. It's a picturesque place, popular with tourists because of its beautiful scenery, distinctive architecture, and colorful history. But more than that, it's in ski country, in the Carpathian Mountains, and many of its streets are steep, narrow, and winding, with rotaries that cannot be avoided. So perhaps you can appreciate how surprised Toader Moise was when the local police pulled him over one day late last month and handed him a ticket for exceeding the posted limit by, well, let's just say ... a lot. According to the citation, Moise's car was clocked at 310 m.p.h. For a bit of perspective, the average speed reached by drivers at the fastest track in NASCAR racing, the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, is 188 m.p.h. Moise, however, is no candidate for the NASCAR circuit. He's comfortably into middle age, and his car is a 15-year-old Renault K65 that – when new – supposedly was capable of reaching 110 m.p.h. with the pedal to the metal. But now? "I can barely get her to do 70," he told local news outlets. In the interest of justice, our guy has appealed his fine, and the police department reportedly is looking into the possibility that there may have been a radar malfunction when he was stopped. Otherwise, Moise says, "I think I should get into that [Guinness] book of records with this." As it happens, his old Renault already was up for sale at the time of the ticket. The experience, however, is causing him to think he may not be asking enough for it.